David Byrne, who has begun his American Utopia arena tour of the UK and Ireland, was a guest on BBC Newsnight on Friday. He spoke with Kirsty Wark about the American Utopia album and tour, the forthcoming release of the complete True Stories soundtrack, and his collaborations with St. Vincent and Fatboy Slim. He also strongly encourages US voters to turn out for the November 6 midterm elections!

Mountain Man launches its first tour in six years in Washington, DC, tonight. The tour, featuring music from the trio's first album in eight years, Magic Ship, continues in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Cambridge, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, culminating with two nights in Saxaphaw, North Carolina.

Gabriel Kahane was a guest on Live From Here with Chris Thile on Saturday. You can watch him perform songs from his new album, Book of Travelers—"November," "Baltimore," and "Little Love," for which he was joined by Thile—here. "I love him," says Thile; "now so do you." Kahane joins Andrew Bird and the NSO at the Kennedy Center in DC this weekend and resumes his Book of Travelers tour in Austin next week.

Congratulations to k.d. lang, who has been awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence, the highest honor the Province of Alberta can bestow on a citizen. The Canadian singer-songwriter, who was born in Edmonton and spent her childhood in Consort, Alberta, was given the medal in a ceremony at Government House in Edmonton. In 1996, lang received Canada's highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada.

David Byrne brings the American Utopia tour back to the UK and to Ireland for eight arena shows starting at the First Direct Arena in Leeds this Sunday and including concerts at the O2 Arena in London, Manchester Arena, Hydro in Glasgow, 3Arena in Dublin, and more. Benjamin Clementine will be Byrne’s special guest for the UK and Irish dates. The tour will then make stops in Amsterdam and Paris before heading to Hong Kong, New Zealand (where Kimbra will be special guest), and Australia. "If you only go to one gig this autumn [or spring, depending]," says the Independent's i, "make it this: David Byrne’s imaginative, breathtaking show is a work of art."

In honor of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch puppeteer Caroll Spinney's retirement from Sesame Street after nearly 50 years, we revisit Kronos Quartet's trip to that beloved street in 1987 to talk with Big Bird about the string quartet and making music. "His open and kind-hearted view of the world and how we should treat each other is something we should forever aspire to," Kronos says of Spinney, and we concur.

In conjunction with The Criterion Collection’s special-edition DVD and Blu-ray release of David Byrne’s 1986 film True Stories, Nonesuch and Todomundo Records release a comprehensive soundtrack, collected for the first time in one package and in film sequence: True Stories, A Film by David Byrne: The Complete Soundtrack is due on vinyl LP, CD, and digital formats on November 23, 2018. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive, limited-edition 12” print of a production photo taken by Byrne. "I always imagined that the music written for True Stories should be heard as it is in the film," says Byrne. "It makes the most sense this way. Me singing the song that was written for John Goodman’s character, Louis Fine, always felt weird to me. It was written for that character, not for me.”

Sam Amidon begins an autumn tour of the UK, featuring music from his new album, The Following Mountain, and more, in Birmingham this Saturday, following a concert in Cologne on Friday. The UK tour includes performances in Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Sheffield, and Newcastle, culminating with a show at Cadogan Hall in London as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival on November 19.

Gaby Moreno is the guest on the latest episode of NPR's What's Good with Stretch & Bobbito. "A versatile musician and vocalist," says the show, "Moreno's style is a combination of blues, soul, Latin rock and folk that she sings in both English and Spanish." She discusses her life and career, including her interpretation of David Rudder's song "The Immigrants," which she recorded with Van Dyke Parks and released for July 4, with proceeds going to support CARECEN and its efforts to empower immigrants. You can hear the conversation here.

Lake Street Dive has announced a tour of Europe and the UK next April. The two-week tour starts in Vienna on April 13, followed by shows in Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Paris, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leuven, Heidelberg, Copenhagen, Hamburg, and Amsterdam. Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, October 17. The band, while in London to perform at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire last week, performed "Shame Shame Shame" from their album Free Yourself Up, on BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends and BBC London's Robert Elms show.

Olivia Chaney stopped by The Current in St. Paul, MN, during her US tour this summer, to perform songs from her new album, Shelter, on Radio Heartland. She spoke with host Mike Pengra about the album and performed three songs: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "Arches," and "Roman Holiday." Watch "Arches" here.

Rokia Traoré has been named Guest Director for the 2019 Brighton Festival, May 4–26, following in the footsteps of Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, and others. "She is a remarkable artist who deserves to be recognized for the great breadth and range of her output," says Brighton Festival Chief Executive Andrew Comben. "She also has a great preparedness to think beyond her personal practice and engage with and comment upon the world around her—qualities which ideally suit her to the role of Guest Director."